Ok, so I mentioned this briefly a few weeks ago, but I’m going to say it again and expand a bit.
A couple of weeks ago, I went and got a physical to have my vitamin D, cholesterol, etc checked Mostly just out of curiosity. That, and, I knew that a friend of mine was skeptical when I kept ranting about eating whole fat foods. As are most people. But consider this: The low fat diet crap has been getting pushed on everyone for a long time now, and people have pretty much been following it. And yet obesity and heart disease and all other illnesses are worse than before.
I also find it amusing that people religiously eat low fat everything, but then drink soda or fruit juices, etc. I mean… REALLY?
One of my biggest pet peeves is when people give low fat foods to their children. If you want to deprive your own body, fine, go crazy. But CHILDREN, babies, pregnant women, and women who want to get pregnant NEED FAT. I can point you to a million reliable, knowledgeable resources. I highly recommend reading Nina Planck’s “Real Food: What to Eat and Why” – she does a phenomenal job of explaining the role that fat & real foods play and why they are A) vital and B) do not make you fat or cause heart disease.
Low fat foods are being pushed on children – fats which are VITAL to growth and brain function – and low fat is linked to a “failure to thrive” in children. (And I wonder… why are people not as diligent about sugar as they are about fat? Do people REALLY not understand that sugar is not good for kids? Or anyone, really? What gives?)
Margarine, which so many people use instead of butter, is disgusting and bad for you – “Soy protein isolate is added to low-trans spreads to give them body. This can contribute to thyroid dysfunction, digestive disorders and many other health problems.” As opposed to butter, which “… many factors in butter ensure optimal growth of children, especially iodine and vitamins A, D and K2. ”
(And, for just a moment, let’s talk about all those nasty protein powders that the masses consume – “Do not consume protein powders, lean meat, egg whites without the yolks or skim milk. High protein diets lacking in the nutrient supplied by animal fats can deplete vitamin A, leading to heart disease.” -Uffe Ravnskov, MD, PhD; The Cholesterol Myths)
So. Anyway. All of our meats are grassfed & pastured and taken as they come – I do not cut the fat off, drain the fat or ask for “lean” cuts. We eat chicken skin. I cook with loads of butter. We drink WHOLE (raw) milk. We eat only whole yogurt (with no sugar or flavor added – we add our own flavor from raw honey, fruit from my frozen farmer’s market stash, etc.) And at least once a week we eat things like chicken and leek stroganoff which is LOADED with heavy cream and butter. Breakfast often includes many many eggs, pancakes and pork breakfast sausage fried in butter.
However. We also do not eat any processed foods. Ever. Seriously – not one. We don’t drink fruit juices (unless they’re raw & freshly squeezed with nothing added but we do drink cider from a local farm occasionally.) We don’t drink soda or sweetened tea. Nugget LOVES chugging down a cup of water – he’s also now eating all solids and raw cow milk. We eat lots and lots of fresh vegetables. This is soup season, which means lots of beans & legume soups loaded with (canned) tomatoes and kale, chard, etc. We eat fruit daily. But I do NOT skimp on fat. (Nor are we deprived of sweets. Nugget is growing up learning that sweets are great occasionally, but high quality stuff. We don’t eat Snickers bars or Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. We eat freshly baked goods – either by myself or a place that uses high quality, local ingredients. I eat dark chocolate – usually from Theo, in Seattle. Etc.) We do also take fermented cod liver oil supplements (not cheap, admittedly, but if you take cod liver oil, you have to be very picky about the brands because quality and fermentation matter tremendously.)
So we eat lots of fat and we live in Seattle. Ask me about my cholesterol and vitamin D levels? Oh, and ask me about my weight, too, on this “high fat” diet? (And I get that it takes awhile to reprogram yourself for the low fat thing – I binged & purged and tried to starve myself for years before I woke up one day and wanted to be HEALTHY.)
My cholesterol is well within a healthy range. My vitamin D levels are spot on. And my weight? I’ve lost all 40 pounds of the pregnancy weight AND SOME (the “and some” I’ll attribute to our walks & the yoga.)
I’m just sayin’. EAT BUTTER.